Miami, FL (Law Firm Newswire) January 30, 2012 – What the President says versus what he does or does not do is really the 2012 campaign issue. Immigration reform is a part of his marketing and election campaign.

“With an election looming, Obama will want to try and get the Hispanic vote on his side. That is going to be a tough when you consider his approach to deportation has caused 5,000 U.S. born kids to be placed in foster homes. Who in their right mind would think those left behind would vote for him and his policies?” asked Larry S. Rifkin, managing partner at Rikfin & Fox-Isicoff, an immigration law firm with Miami immigration lawyers and Orlando immigration lawyers.

Interestingly enough, the Obama election machine is cranking out reports that the President’s support is going up amongst Hispanic voters, which is hard to fathom since that community would be the first to express its displeasure and frustration with the lack of immigration reform. What would make the President’s campaign think that those who voted once based on an election promise for much needed changes in the immigration system would vote a second time for the same thing, when nothing has happened since he was elected?

“The answer may well lie in the latest bunch of Republican candidates who are vocally on the side of persecuting illegal immigrants. That would make Obama look mighty attractive by comparison, or to quote a proverb, ‘Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t’,” Rifkin remarked. On the face of things, it appears the President is attempting to support comprehensive immigration reform and pushing measures to improve the quality of Hispanic’s lives.

One thing appears to be clear and that is in the “knock ‘em down and drag ‘em out” atmosphere of the campaign fight, whatever the Republicans have said against reform will be trotted out to remind the public what this is all about. This will likely include scandal-ridden Herman Cain’s disparaging remark about erecting an electrified wall. To say the 2012 election campaign is going to be interesting, if not vitriolic, is likely an understatement.

“The bottom line for this election is that immigration reform is, once again, crucial to the Latin voters. They offer up a huge block of votes, and stand to lose the most at the polls if they vote for Republican policies; the ones that say they want to back the rich and work with the large companies,” outlined Rifkin.

Even if Obama looks to be better than the other guys, he still has a long and arduous trip ahead of him to swing the Hispanic vote. Their community is sick to death of seeing families scattered all over the map thanks to deportations. “Frankly, you can’t have it both ways and expect people to vote for you,” Rifkin added. “Especially not in light of the recent figures that show over 46,000 undocumented parents of kids born in the U.S. were deported between January and June.”

If the deportation trend continues, the numbers of children in foster homes will rise exponentially. What will Obama do about that? To date, he has indicated those cases could be reviewed to allow the parents to have some contact with their children. “I don’t know about you, but that’s not good enough for me, and frankly, I don’t think it’s good enough for immigrants either. The question is what else is there for an alternative?” said Rifkin.